Industrial Accidents

The gunk on the water had thinned to a gray scrim in front of Mike Thomas' riverfront home -- a small sign of progress one week after one of the worst coal ash spills in American history. But as Thomas drove along the bluff over the Emory River, he pointed to big piles of sludgy, dark gray ash, a byproduct of coal combustion, that had been accidentally disgorged by the nearby electricity plant. The heaps jutted from the water's surface like ugly volcanic islands.

State regulators performed a shoddy investigation and let UCLA off too lightly for violations stemming from a chemistry lab fire that killed a staff research assistant, the victim's family contends in papers filed with Cal-OSHA and the Occupational Safety and Health Appeals Board. Sheri Sangji, 23, suffered severe burns over 43% of her body when an experiment with air-sensitive chemicals burst into flame Dec. 29 and ignited her clothing.

Doctors say they've never seen anything like it: A window washer who fell 47 stories from the roof of a Manhattan skyscraper is now awake, talking to his family and expected to walk again. Alcides Moreno, 37, plummeted almost 500 feet in a Dec. 7 scaffolding collapse that killed his brother. Somehow Moreno lived, and doctors at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center announced Thursday that his recovery has been astonishing. He has movement in all his limbs.

Volatile dust was blamed Friday in an explosion that leveled a sugar refinery, and crews pulled four bodies from tunnels beneath the mangled mass of metal and beams. At least four people known to be inside when the explosion occurred were missing. Savannah Police Sgt. Mike Wilson said no attempts would be made to search for the dead until today, when heavy equipment will be brought in to remove debris. Search efforts were slowed by the instability of what was left of the Imperial Sugar Co.

A recently hired plumber was sent into the bowels of the Orleans hotel and casino last year to unplug a sewer pipe in a large grease trap -- an assignment that would be his last. The hotel had no permit or training program to allow plumber Richard Luzier to enter a confined space where he might inhale poisonous sewer gas. He had no breathing apparatus or emergency rescue harness -- all routine precautions. Luzier fell 12 feet and landed face down in fatty sewage.

A judge Tuesday approved a $48-million jury award to a former Union Pacific Railroad employee who was left a quadriplegic after a work-related car accident last year. The Los Angeles County Superior Court jury award to Eric Doi last month was the largest verdict ever to a plaintiff under the federal law that covers railroad workers injured on the job. Railroads and their employees are not covered by state worker's compensation laws.

The body of a woman last seen at a produce plant in Arizona was found in a lettuce delivery truck at a distribution center near Des Moines, police said. Sheila Kay Ross, 47, evidently was accidentally pinned inside the truck while it was being loaded, Dr. John Kraemer of the Iowa medical examiner's office said. An autopsy concluded that she died of compressional asphyxiation, Kraemer said.

A large building crane crashed across the northbound lanes of the 405 Freeway in Sherman Oaks on Friday, closing one of the region's busiest roadways for more than three hours and causing traffic to clog along radiating arteries for miles around. The crane operator was pinned in his cab and seriously injured in the collapse, and two motorists were hurt when their vehicles crashed into each other and then into the arm of the crane. The crane collapsed about 1 p.m.

Several explosions engulfed a chemical plant in flames, forcing a broad evacuation in Kansas City as the fire spewed a sticky substance that residents were warned not to touch. Two workers at Chemcentral Corp. suffered minor injuries, authorities said. Police drove up and down nearby streets warning that more explosions were expected, but the blaze began subsiding in late evening.

One worker was critically burned on his hands and face and three others were injured in a flash electrical fire at the Shell refinery in Wilmington. The incident occurred about 2:30 p.m. while the four were working on a 2,300-volt electrical panel. Firefighters called to the scene at 2101 E. Pacific Coast Highway. were initially told that one of the men had been electrocuted.